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<<< COMMON QUESTIONS, ISSUES, and HOW-TOs >>>WHY CAN'T I SEE PICTURES

Hello everyone. We'd like to provide you with a list of things that are commonly asked, issues we see come up frequently, and some how-tos we know some of you may be looking for. We'll mostly link to content containing the answers or in some cases do so with an accompanying short blurb.

Issues:

New account activation.

Most of the time new accounts are activated within two days of registration (assuming email confirmation has been done), though often activation is then done within a day. This is done by a member of our volunteer moderation team when they are available to process those that have newly registered.

Please try to submit quality posts which just means posting with substance as opposed to simple, "Me, too!", "Yes, I agree", and "Looks good" types of messages without any supporting information. This allows everyone to get to know you. Profile access is not instantaneous at 25 posts, allow a few hours to a day.

Many pictures are simply missing.This may be due to many factors. Members are permitted to remove their pictures at any time, a photo may have been removed by the person who posted it. LHC lost all photo albums many years ago in a server crash and all photos from prior to that time have gone missing. Off site hosts may have shut down or restricted embedded sharing (PhotoBucket). Off site hosts may still be using http and not https (s for secure) and browsers will not display the insecure images. Check out this Chrome extension solution. To see where the missing image was hosted, quote the post in question and take a look at the IMG URL. You may be able to view some images by pasting the URL into your browser's address bar.

You are unsure whether or not your account has been activated.

This is an issue some new users may run into or be confused by. After registration you should have been sent a confirmation email to proceed through the activation process. If you have not received such an email, please message us by clicking "Contact Us" at the bottom of the page and we would be happy to resend the message to you.

All newly registered users are manually processed by a member of the moderation team, usually within 1-2 days of their having done email confirmation.

To check if you have been activated (if you are unsure), please try posting somewhere on the Test Board or try to create a thread on the NEW? START HERE! board. If you can successfully submit a post then you have an active account. Some users may misinterpret their current user permissions as their having an inactive account, as those awaiting moderator-performed activations, system-wise, are in permissions limbo.

When you sign in there should be a box which says "Remember Me". Make sure that box is checked when you sign in.

It puts a "cookie" in your web browser to serve as an "I'm signed in!" indicator. Every now and then the forum checks for it. If it doesn't see it then it will sign you out, otherwise you stay signed in.

Your web browser must accept cookies for this to work. Most of them do by default.

If your device accepts cookies and you have checked "Remember Me" and still get logged out, you may need to remove your existing cookies and log in fresh to get a new set of functional cookies.

If a moderator sees multiple single-quote posts in succession by the same person, they may merge them into just one post. Please try to use multi-quoting instead. You can find directions and a place to test it by clicking here.

Moderators may also merge consecutive posts together if they were not using the quote system and make the subsequent posts an "ETA:" (Edited to add instead. Users who have the necessary permissions can edit their posts to add additional information as opposed to posting multiple messages one after the other.

This can be done by using the forum's search feature. Click on the question to be taken to instructions about how to do this.

Searching on LHC:

In the menu bar, on the right side below the yellow Donate button is both a search box and an "Advanced Search" link. The search box is powered by Google and only covers the public portions of the board. You will have better results using the "Advanced Search" feature. Within Advanced Search, you can specify which resources you are searching (posts, blogs, etc), specify members posts, define date ranges, and distinguish between searching for terms in posts or in thread titles. Searching for thread titles is very useful for finding common topics.

Wild card searches are also supported. Use the * character to indicate an incomplete word that may be completed by multiple endings. A search for "experiment*" will return experiment, experiments, experimentation, etc.

If you do not see something here, you are always welcome to PM a moderator.

Thanks!

Last edited by Gumball; August 31st, 2015 at 10:13 PM.
Reason: Edited to remove email related issues now that the system has been restored.

Re: <<< COMMON QUESTIONS, ISSUES, and HOW-TOs >>>

Unregistered (aka the whole Internet):
Can view the public forums, everything but Community Meets and Off-Topic areas
Can search the public forums
Can view the Articles section

Can not see Profiles, Blogs or Photo Albums
Can not see iTrader Ratings

Newbies (0-25 posts):
Can view, post and create new threads on the public and off-topic forums - except starting new polls
Can have an avatar/profile photo, if it was submitted during signing up - changes can be made once you're in the 25+ user group, since they require profile access

Can not view profiles or leave profile visitor messagesCan not view or edit their own profile - the software does not differ between the access to your own or other profilesCan not see Blogs or Photo Albums, since those are attached to the profiles
Can not read, edit or delete profile visitor messages left on their profiles by other users
Can not make or accept "Friends"-requests - there's no point in using the Friends-feature until a user can access the profile, blog or album areas
Can not view the Community Meets area and Social Groups
Can not view Off-Topic forums
Can not submit articles or product reviews
Can not have a signature
Can not set self to invisible
Can not use Private Messaging
Can not edit their own posts

25+ posters:
Can view profiles, read and leave profile visitor messages
Can edit their own profile (layout/colors/font) and edit/delete visitor messages
Can create an own Blog and Photo Album - Photo Storage: 100 pictures
Can view and comment on other LHC Blogs and Photo Albums, if they are not private - then you need to be on someone's friendlist to view them
Can make and receive Friends-requests
Can view, join and post in Social Groups - all except creating new Social Groups
Can view Off-Topic forums
Can create new polls
Can have a signature - Sig Limit: 3 lines
Can set self to invisible
Can use Private Messaging - PM Storage: 50 messages
Can edit their own posts - please note that editing posts for other purposes than fixing typos or adding something is not permitted
Can not view the Community Meets area
Can not submit articles and product reviews

100+ posts and 60+ days:
Can view and post in the Community Meets forums
Photo Storage: 100 pictures
Can submit articles

1000+ posts and 365+ days:
Can have Animated Avatars (gif)
PM Storage: 100 messages
Photo Storage: 200 pictures
Can Add/Edit/Delete articles
Can Create Social Groups
Can set a Custom User Title
Can use HTML in Blogs

Last edited by Gumball; December 26th, 2014 at 09:02 AM.
Reason: Updated information to match original post.

Re: <<< COMMON QUESTIONS, ISSUES, and HOW-TOs >>>

This is a reminder that according to the Community Guidelines and Terms of Service (item #4 ) proper/standard English is expected in posts and articles here at TLHC. Chat/text-speak and lolcat-speak are difficult to read and are not allowed. This rule is in force to maintain the high quality discussion that we strive for at TLHC.

Please do your fellow members the courtesy of using standard capitalization and punctuation, just as students learn in English language classes in school. It makes reading posts much easier, and people are more likely to respond to your post. Also, many members are not native speakers of English, so it helps to have standard English like they would find in a dictionary.

If you use your cell phone or other electronic device to post, then switch to T9 (or similar) text typing and make your writing style conform to standard, proper English. Standard proper English usage requires using capitalization at the beginning of sentences, capitalizing proper nouns, using correct ending and transitional punctuation, spelling out words ("great" not "gr8", "you are" not "u r" ). This is a sampling of the standards of writing we expect.

However, if English is your second language or you have disabilities, do not fear. You are not the ones causing concern, and we thank you for your efforts. Just do your best.

Thank you all for taking heed. For the record, harsher measures will follow for members who persist in using chat/text-speak.

Getting Along at TLHC: KNIT to Maintain Our Community Spirit
Original post here.

"I came for the hair care advice, but I stayed for the friends."

It has been said more than once that TLHC is one of the nicest sites on the 'net. That's because we have exceptional members who genuinely care about each other and terrific moderators who strive to make sure everyone has the best experience possible. The feeling created is very much like an extended family.

On occasion, however, a quarrel will occur, or a bit of snark will creep into people's messages, and this note is a gentle reminder that the best antidote for that is for everyone to monitor their own posts. Using the Report Button is a great help to the moderators by alerting us to problems, but prevention is a way that everyone can help maintain that warm community spirit. So, as we like to say, KNIT before you post.

Before you hit the "Submit" button, review what you're about to say:

Is it Kind?

Is it Necessary?

Is it Informative?

Is it True?

Read your words as if someone else were saying them to you. How would you receive them? Would you be offended, hurt or angry? If your post doesn't pass those tests, try again. If you simply can't compose something, let the thread go, and maybe try again later.

Every once in a while, there will be something that you cannot agree with. No one expects there to be a complete meeting of minds on every single topic discussed here. In those cases, we ask for tolerance - not acceptance, but tolerance. The other person is always worthy of respect. If you post, do not attack. Agree to disagree, and let your words be civil and even as kind as possible.

Re: <<< COMMON QUESTIONS, ISSUES, and HOW-TOs >>>

Hotlinking and copyright issues in a nutshell and how they apply on LHC.

Hotlinking:
When you insert a picture-link with the [IMG] tags into a post, it causes traffic for the site it is hosted at. This uses their bandwith every single time the forum-page containing the image is loaded/viewed by someone. Which can cause costs for the hosting-site and is illegal.

Exceptions are image-hosting sites which offer space and bandwidth to upload images as a service. Like Flickr, Photobucket, or ImageShack, just to name a few.

Copyright issues:
To use a picture you have not taken yourself without having permission, violates the copyrights the photographer owns on the picture. Saving it on a computer or uploading it online somewhere else is illegal. As is inserting it on a forum using the [IMG][/IMG] tags.

There are a few legal exceptions when it is not illegal to use a foreign picture. Like fair share, public domain, expired copyrights, written permissions, lol-cats etc.

On LHC
The "insert image" button in forum-posts and blogs is meant for pictures you have taken yourself. They can either be hosted in an album here or on a photo-hosting site.

In case you want to show a copyrighted picture, or really any picture you have not taken yourself, please just post a link to it and refrain from uploading it to an album on LHC. It is easier than going through the grey areas of what may and may not be permitted to display as an actual image versus a link.

We also, in the sense of fairness, promote a "no nipples, buttcracks, or pubes" rule for both genders.

As a courtesy to others and in acknowledgement of the fact that many members here would object to people taking pictures of them and posting them online without permission, we likewise ask that no one post photos of others without their explicit consent. This is especially true for photos typically known as "street shots" that appear taken without the subjects having been made aware.

If you have any questions, you are more than welcome to PM a member of the moderation team.

Thank you!

Last edited by Gumball; January 14th, 2016 at 09:24 PM.
Reason: Further addendum to image posting rules.

Re: <<< COMMON QUESTIONS, ISSUES, and HOW-TOs >>>

If you find a post where you may think it violates a rule or guideline (even a simple one), it offends you, or you want to bring it to the moderation team's attention, you can report it.

Below each post you will find this button: If you click on it you will be given a field to write a reason for reporting the post, then a button to submit the report. All reports are private and simply serve to bring something to our attention. There is no harm in reporting a post.

Originally Posted by Question 2

I reported something, but nothing was done! What happened?

This is a relatively common follow-up to the answer to Question 1. All reports are discussed by the moderation team. If an action is taken on the part of the moderation team, it is confidential between them and the member in question. Not seeing action taken does not mean action was not taken. There are instances that may have visible action such as changing a hotlinked image in a post into a simple link to comply with our Image Posting Guidelines.

Originally Posted by Question 3

What are infractions?

Infractions are used as a penalty system on the boards as a result of some form of violation or repeat offense. All infractions are discussed by the moderation team prior to being given. They are private between the moderation team and the member in question.

We do not delete blogs for users. This can be very time consuming and all of the moderators are volunteers. You are welcome to delete your blog posts as you wish.

Originally Posted by Question 6

I'm not sure where to find the answer to my problem. What can I do?

Great question! Try one of the following items depending on your situation:

If it is an issue with a site feature, check the Site Support forum first. There may have already been a thread about your particular question. Feel welcome to post your question if you could not find an answer to it.

If it is a personal issue or step 1 didn't work, send a Private Message (PM) to a moderator.

Can I ask members to vote for a contest or something similar on another website? What about asking for monetary donations for something? How about asking to participate in research I'm doing for a school or work project?

This is a good question, and one that we see come up from time to time. While we are sure anything related to the above type of scenario is done with wonderfully good intentions, our Terms of Service (Item 4. Post Content) prohibit solicitation and fundraising.